The problem with getting feedback from other developers is that they are far too nice. Developers know how hard it is to make a game, how much sweat and tears went into it, and they know what it's like to be on the receiving side of negative feedback. So, they are going to consistently pull their punches. If they think your game is complete and utter crap, they are going to express this in a diplomatic, roundabout way, like “It doesn't appeal to me” or “Your game looks boring”, or they are going to fixate on one minor issue that's relatively simple to fix, like the font.

If you want an honest appraisal of a game, go directly to the players. They are going to be far less nice. If you're lucky, they'll verbally abuse you. If you're unlucky, they'll just ignore you completely.

I don't think developers are necessarily more mean or more nice than player.

The difference is that players are a lot more genuine.

As it's a much less loaded subject for them to give feedback on other games.

For developers criticizing other developer's games is a much more loaded question. You are right about that. Because they might compare your work to their own aspirations.

Telling me “Your game looks boring” is not diplomatic at all. It's like I will tell you “Your wife is ugly, I am sorry but I am being honest”.

Zurtan said:
Telling me “Your game looks boring” is not diplomatic at all. It's like I will tell you “Your wife is ugly, I am sorry but I am being honest”.

Well, not its not. Because you are presenting your game to be played by people, you are inviting them to give honest feedback. You are not asking people to judge your wife normally. The situation is more like if you were to send your wife to a beauty-contenest, and then you get pissed off that people don't think shes a 10/10.

Thats whats actually kind of pissing me off about your posts. You say people are being dishonest with their critics, but you don't actually want them to be honest; you just want them to blow smoke up your ***, or at least hold back their honest opinion if it is negative. Yeah, finding a game boring is absolutely possibly. I found the newest paper mario boring. So you are saying that I should not tell you that I found your game boring because its not “diplomatic”, and just because you are an indie developer and might take it personal?

Stop taking this shit personal. Its not. Unless somebody is really personally attacking you; no matter what they say about your game; its their opinion and its their right to have and say. If you think thats the same as a personal attack, then you need to fix your attitude and not how people react to your game.

“Your game looks boring” is a diplomatic way to avoid saying that your game is boring. “I'm sure that underneath the boring exterior, it's the most exciting game ever. It just looks boring, i.e, it gives a bad and completely inaccurate first impression. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with your game, you just need to make it look more exciting. Because no game by a fellow indie developer would ever actually be boring.”

@a light breeze No, it's just a very lazy response.

He could have said “Nothing exciting happen in the trailer” or “I do not see anything new or anything that hasn't been done before in this game” or “The visuals aren't really interesting to me” or “The content seems to be bland”.

But “Your game looks boring” is the laziest response you can give without having to think about your response.

Also, “looking boring” sometimes is a result of a person's inner state or mood.

Some people find all games boring and don't play games at all.

Zurtan said:
No, it's just a very lazy response.

Indeed saying only “Your game looks boring” without anything else is lazy. And its not feedback you can probably draw much from in terms of how to improve the game. Buts its not like a personal insult. Its actually the same kind of lazy as “your game looks great!”. But you are absolutely OK with the latter while the boring part bothers you, amirite? ?

The difference is that if someone says “This game looks great!” and if you will follow it with a question about what he liked about it, he will gladly provide more details.

But if you tell someone that saying that “It looks boring” is lazy or tell them to explain why, they would usually tell you “I am being honest, it's your problem that you cannot accept valid feedback”.

The “It's looks boring” is usually said by malice, unless he is really willing to describe why he thinks it's boring instead of telling me that I should accept his honest opinion as is.

Edit: There are many games that are successful on Steam that you think suck, but because the developer build a rabid fan base, it has a lot of people saying how great this game is. That is also a strategy.

After all, reviews on Steam are really only a small percent of the people who actually buy the game. Only a small percent of people who buy a game bother to review it.

So yea, it goes both ways.

But having a rabid fan base, is not as bad as having people intentionally hating on your game.

Maybe both saying “It looks boring” and “It looks great” are lazy and not helping much, but “It looks boring” is more vile than saying “It looks great”.

If you don't intend to be helpful and hate the game? Why say anything at all?

The difference is that if someone says “This game looks great!” and if you will follow it with a question about what he liked about it, he will gladly provide more details.

But if you tell someone that saying that “It looks boring” is lazy or tell them to explain why, they would usually tell you “I am being honest, it's your problem that you cannot accept valid feedback”.

That really doesn't sound like a typical response. I mean, maybe that what you have been getting, but I personally made more of the opposite experience. Usually the people who tore into my game were more than glad to put out pages of why what I did was horseshit. Are you sure you aren't sounding defensive or judgmental (you know, a bit like in that thread) when you try to find out why somebody didn't like your game? Because I really cannot imagine an exchange going like that:

“Your game looks boring!”

“What partictically didn't you like about it?”

"I am being honest, it's your problem that you cannot accept valid feedback”

If thats what actually keeps happening for you, IDK.
And again, I'm saying that because I was in that position myself. When people started criticising my game, I always ended up trying to attack them, make them look like idiots or like they didn't know what they were talking about (without really meaning it).

Well I am the opposite than you, whenever someone said something bad about my game, I trusted they know what they say.

Over the time, I realized, some people like to trash other people's games with no responsbility of what they say could do, and they don't even care if what they are saying is wrong, they just want to SOUND smart and right.

"being brutally honest it's pretty dull, and boring.

you should capture the main selling point of your game within the first few seconds.

this just looks like gameplay with background music."

Yea, ok, he had a valid feedback sort of. But still a douch bag response.

“Pompi please do not try to brush off feedback people give you, it will only help you.”

Here he is with his super confidence, his feedback can't possibly be wrong, right?

Anyway, he isn't here to help me out, he is here to trash me and tell me I should follow his footsteps on how to develop games, because he figured it all out already. :/

Yeah, if somebody only says “this looks boring” without any details, then that's lazy. The proper way to interpret it is probably “This doesn't appeal to me at all, so I'm not even going to waste my time examining it in more detail. However, I feel that I should say something, so I'll just say the minimal amount that will excuse me from wasting any more time on this.” Which feels more like a player reaction than what I would expect from a fellow developer, but developers can also be players.